European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March,26, 1991 the stars and stripes Ellen Goodman Page 13 commentary Schwarzkopf prototypical american male miss these Long afternoons together find yourself looking in the personals column for a Burly 56-year-old in fatigues with a 170 in and a taste for Pavarotti desperately seeking a Man who is caring but Well commanding if you Are among the millions suffering from Schwarzkopf withdrawal take heart. The War May be Over the  May be kaput but the general is not going to fade away. Norman Schwarzkopf the certifiable four Star of operation desert storm and subject of More profiles than sting is now in for a postwar wave of attention. He is being a a mentioned by political types who Are always Hunting for a new kid on the Block. And he is listening. A i have never considered any political aspirations a he said the other morning but a you know somebody once said a never say  does that somebody hear a name being put into play do you hear the faint refrain of a i like Ike before the Schwarzkopf for president buttons Start appearing its Worth asking Why a 6-foot-3 balding 240-Pound member of the International brotherhood of magicians has become the heartthrob of America. How did he become the Bright hew shining entry into the revised american pantheon of real men Schwarzkopf is not John Wayne the late lamented and lampooned role Model for an earlier generation of american men. Strong but silent does no to Hack it in the �?T90s. It gets a Guy grief and an anniversary copy of a you just done to  nor is Schwarzkopf another Alan Alda resident stereotype of the new sensitive Man of the �?T70s. The right to cry is Fine but sensitivity without self Confidence these Days gets a Man labelled a wimp As for rambo the Brawny no brainer of the �?T80s? real men done to do it All alone in the desert. And finally this Man bears Little resemblance to that last military hero Oliver North. North is the one who told the congressional hearing that he did no to question the reason for his assignment. I saluted smartly and charged up the hill.�?�? can you imagine Schwarzkopf saying that Here a the general on duty and morality a if it Ever came to a Choice Between compromising my moral principles and the performance of my duties i know id go with my moral  but Norman Schwarzkopf is not just the thinking woman a Oliver North. This complicated character seems to synthesize conflicting and changing male images. Introspective but decisive caring yet competent one of the Guys and a Leader not stuff that always comes in the same male package. In Many glimpses we be seen a Man who is on speak Leslie h. Gelb ing terms with his emotions willing to express his fears but not paralysed by them. Someone who Isnit afraid of violence but does no to like it. An army Man who Calls War a a profane  it is rare for a general to say a i done to want my troops to die. I done to want my troops to be maimed. Its an intensely personal emotional thing for me. I agonize Over  it is still More rare that we believe him. The military was Long one of the touchstones of maleness. Vietnam sullied the image of Soldier with that of a baby  but Schwarzkopf who had done much soul searching about Vietnam put it behind him. And maybe behind men. Cast against Type As they say in Hollywood the head of desert storm was also a bit too heavy and Plain to look heroic. There is the sense of a Man whose authority is hard won through internal struggles not just through stripes and stars. In the search for a new Model of male leadership he seems like the real thing. As Ralph Whitehead of the University of Massachusetts notes with bemusement after some years of tracking changing american men a a in be had a sense that american men have been looking for a new optimal blend. But if someone had told me two years ago that it would come from a new style of military hero that would have been the last place that i  me too. To recognize Schwarzkopf As role Model Isnit to anoint him As politician though it would be poetic Justice if this general turned out to be a Democrat. But it is intriguing to see a Man who is caring emerge put of the fighting. A Good Man As they say is hard to find. Set one More place at the table for a general of action and introspection. Make some room to still Strong but no longer silent. The Boston Globe for men who Are Bush must halt runaway Mideast arms buying Syria Egypt Iraq and Turkey each have More main Battle tanks than Britain or France. Syria Iraq and Egypt each Fly nearly As Many combat aircraft As Germany or France or Britain. Egypt Iran Iraq Kuwait Libya saudi Arabia and Syria have purchased from abroad about $125 billion in arms since 1983. This accounts for More than half the worldwide arms Trade. Why Are they doing this can president Bush do anything to bring the situation under control these nations Are not buying All those arms to fight for a palestinian Homeland. They treat palestinians the Way americans treated indians. Nor do they Arm themselves so heavily because they think Israel will grab their territory or Oil. Not even the most paranoid Arab fears that. There Are two simple and powerful reasons for Mideast muslims making their territories look More like arsenals than countries. First most of them hate and distrust each other. They have killed hundreds of thousands of their Brethren in wars Over the last 40 years. Second they hate Israel and most would like to destroy it. Israel intruded into their established world and humiliated them in Battle Many times. Even today they know that Israel itself an armed Camp could defeat any two of them simultaneously. These Arab states and Iran have very Little incentive to accept limits on their arms purchases. They live in constant fear that one of their Muslim Brothers will gain the upper hand and attack. Also stopping the arms race would guarantee israelis continued superiority in military technology arid its monopoly in nuclear weapons. Thus the arms race spirals upward and the wars become More terrible. The arms exporters understand All this full Well. But Only on the rarest occasions have they denied arms requests from their Oil suppliers. The industrialized world simply wants to keep the Oil countries Happy and buying arms to help offset the Oil Bills. No one understands this Mutual dependency better than the Mideast Oil producers who also know that Oil Money is their Best weapon against Israel. Israel cannot afford to compete with its neighbors in arms imports Over the Long run. It is already strapped with an enormous defense budget. That Burden and the goal of keeping military superiority explain Why Israel now Calls for Sharp cuts in arms exports to the Middle East. To manage these Eye crossing interests and Maneu vers Over arms the Bush administration has developed the following approach a ban sales of chemical biological and nuclear arms and related know How and the Long Range missiles capable of delivering such weapons. That a reasonable but Many Mideast nations already have some of these capabilities. Also missile exporters a North Korea and China for example a will not abide by limits. A consider setting limits on sales of aircraft tanks artillery and smart missiles but in the meantime sell what buyers want a a to see to it that they re secure a As defense Secretary Cheney put it. And As Long As other suppliers do not. Restrain their sales there is no sense putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. A argue that iraqis defeat has diminished the biggest threat to All and that All can now safely buy less. That a a solid tactic but the administration already expects a substantial increase in demand from the victors. A negotiate Confidence building measures like arabs dropping their economic Boycott against Israel and Israel providing better treatment for palestinians. Its sensible but it will not reduce arms demands. A seek peace settlements Between arabs and Israel and Between Israel and the palestinians. That san essential ingredient for eventual arms restraint on the Arab israeli front but it does not Deal with the inter Arab quarrels which also trigger demands for arms. The administrations plan is practical and realistic. Too much so. It is weighed Down by business As usual realism. There seems nothing in it to exploit the death of the soviet threat and the diminished value of soviet arms sales. It contains Little to suggest building on the victorious anti Iraq coalition folded by Bush a or escaping the tragic history of Mideast arms  is in a Strong position to press other arms exporters for joint limits on sales and to link arms sales creatively with peace diplomacy. But to surmount this arms quagmire he Lias to think bigger than his aides and put his new prestige on the line. Nev York times